Archive for the ‘Polio Plus’ Category

Speaker’s Life Inspires to See and End to Polio

Phil Kerber, member of the St. Croix Falls Rotary, asked me to share a story from his old stomping grounds in Waterloo, IA.  Phil has been a member of Rotary for long time and has many stories to tell, but the story of Doug Oberman’s fight with Polio has an important heart touching message that inspires Phil and many other Rotarians fighting to eradicate Polio.

Doug Oberman was only eight years old when he contracted polio. He was in a coma for ten days and when he woke up he found he could not move his arms or legs. He spent 18 months in a polio ward at University of Iowa hospital, with three of those months spent in an iron lung.

Today, Doug still cannot use his arms and sleeps each night in an iron lung. He never recovered from the effects of polio, but with his family’s support and encouragement, he participated fully in life.

“Because I couldn’t use my arms, I had to use my brain,” he said.

He became a lawyer and joined Swisher & Cohrt law firm in Waterloo in 1972. Doug joined the Rotary Club of Waterloo and became involved in raising money to eradicate polio throughout the world. He was the keynote speaker at the 2002 Rotary International Convention in Barcelona, Spain, doing his part to gain enthusiastic support for polio eradication.

To read the full story, click HERE.

Pat Struve, Paul Harris Fellow and Club President Terry Hawkins

January 20, 2010

Rotarian Pat Struve, of the St. Croix Falls Rotary Club, was presented with his +6th Paul Harris Award by Club President, Terry Hawkins.

A Paul Harris Fellow is an individual who donates $1,000 or more to the Annual Programs Fund, PolioPlus, or the Humanitarian Grants Program, or people who have that amount contributed in their name, can be recognized as Paul Harris Fellows. Each new Paul Harris Fellow receives a commemorative certificate and a pin.  Individuals who donate multiple $1,000 dollars become Paul Harris + members.

Upon receiving his Paul Harris Pin, Pat recalled life as a boy in the midst of the Polio crisis in America. He remembered vividly, not being able to play with other kids because of the Polio outbreak and seeing friends and family members die or disabled as a result of the virus.  According to Pat, “when Rotary began it’s Polio Vaccination project, I saw it as an opportunity to end polio in my generation ~ and Rotary has almost done it.”

Congratulations to Rotarian Pat Struve for his years of service in Rotary and his generous gift to Rotary International to End Polio Now.

You can more information about Rotary and Paul Harris at: Rotary.org

After 20 years of hard work, Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradicating this tenacious disease, but a strong push is needed now to root it out once and for all. It is a window of opportunity of historic proportions.

Your contribution will help Rotary match a $100 million challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The resulting $200 million will directly support immunization campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families.

As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere remain at risk. The stakes are that high.